CKWX
CKWX (known on-air as News1130) is a 24-hour all-news radio station broadcasting to residents of Vancouver & the Lower Mainland, British Columbia. Upon the switch to it's current format in 1996, News1130 introduced up-to-the minute frequent traffic reports every 10 minutes, a service already present in major American metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, but nonexistent in Vancouver. News1130's biggest influence on Vancouver radio has been regular & frequent traffic reports & numerous other stations now offer scheduled traffic reports. History CKWX first began broadcasting in Nanaimo, British Columbia on April 1, 1923 as CFDC, then owned by automotive & electronics store owner Arthur "Sparks" Halstead & operating on it's original wavelength of 430 meters (670 kHz) with 10 watts of power (later increased to 50 watts). In 1925, the station switched frequencies to 730 AM & cut it's power back to 10 watts to share time with Vancouver stations CFCQ, CKCD, CKFC & CJKC. In 1927, Halstead opened a new branch of his auto-electric business in Vancouver & decided to relocate CFDC there. The Department of Marine & Fisheries (which then regulated broadcasting in Canada) had not authorized CFDC's move to Vancouver & revoked the station's licence as a result, but listener complaints led to the department granting a new licence to the station, on the condition that it use new call letters; Halstead complied & the station returned as CKWX, now using 100 watts of power. It broadcast briefly from the Belmont Hotel in downtown Vancouver before moving to the Hotel Georgia, still sharing air time @ 730 AM with CFCQ & CKCD in 1928, then with CHLS, CKFC & CKMO in 1929. In 1933, CKWX moved from 730 to 1010 AM, then to 950 AM in 1938 before settling @ 980 AM in 1941 following the Havana Treaty, which took effect on March 27 that year to settle problems with AM radio interference. Arthur Halstead later sold a 40% share of the station to Taylor, Pearson & Carson, which took over station management, moved the studios to Seymour Street & increased it's transmitting power to 1,000 watts. By 1947, CKWX's power further increased to 5,000 watts & it became an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System, while it's transmitter was moved to Lulu Island (now the site of Richmond). CKWX went to 24-hour operation on January 1, 1954 @ 12:30 AM, with a program called "Concert Under the Stars." In 1956, the studios moved to 1275 Burrard Street & on August 15 1957, CKWX switched from 980 (soon taken by CKNW) to it's present 1130 AM. The station adopted a rock & roll/Top 40 music format in the same year when Red Robinson joined the station's on-air staff (CKWX was, in fact, the 1st Vancouver radio station to use that format full-time). CKWX increased power to 50,000 watts in 1958, becoming the 1st 50 kW station in Western Canada. Harold Carson, 1/3rd of the Taylor, Pearson & Carson firm that owned CKWX, died in 1959; the firm would change it's name to Selkirk Holdings Ltd. later in the year. CKWX switched formats from Top 40 to MOR music in 1962 & Red Robinson left the station @ that time to join CFUN. Selkirk became a publicly traded company in 1965 & purchased 100% ownership of CKWX (with approval from the Board of Broadcast Governors on October 10, 1966. On March 7 1973, CKWX underwent a major change as it dropped it's mixed MOR/talk radio format for the country music format the station would become famous for. On February 13 1979, the CRTC granted CKWX parent Selkirk Holdings a licence for an FM station with a jazz format. Selkirk originally wanted 93.7 FM, but were advised to find a different frequency; after doing so, CJAZ signed on @ 92.1 FM on March 1 1980, as the 1st Canadian station with an all-jazz format. CJAZ later moved to 96.9 FM, then switched call letters & formats in 1985 as it became CKKS, with an adult contemporary format. CKWX & CKKS moved to their present studios on 2440 Ash Street on June 17 1988, with the official opening on July 20; on September 28, Maclean-Hunter Ltd. purchased Selkirk Communications & it's stations (including CKWX & CKKS) & also received approval from the CRTC to transfer the former Selkirk stations to Rogers Communications, Inc. On February 8 1996, CKWX ended it's country music broadcasts after almost 23 years & switched to it's present all-news format & in 2003, CKKS switched formats again & became CKLG-FM, under the Jack FM banner. A fairly extensive personnel shuffle took place @ the station on September 2, 2003. Program Director George Gordon replaced Andrew Dawson as morning co-anchor, joining Kenya Anderson, while Dianne Newman moved to middays joining Brian Brenn. That same day, Jim Bennie joined Joanna Mileos to co-anchor the PM drive. Pamela McCall became the newest afternoon anchor, replacing Joanna Mileos, in the Spring of 2007. McCall would later leave the station & be replaced by Karen Thomson in 2008. Following the departure of Kenya Anderson in 2005, Treena Wood & Tammy Moyer alternated in the anchor chair only to be replaced by Dianne Newman in 2006. Ben Wilson was named permanent evening anchor with Tom Bricker in November 2007. The license for shortwave transmitter CKFX-SW (6080 kHz, 10 watts) was deleted on June 8, 2007 after an extended silence. The CKFX calls are now on an FM radio station in North Bay, Ontario. Traffic & Weather News1130 broadcasts Traffic & Weather Together on the 1s @ :01, :11, :21:, :31, :41 & :51, with a traffic report followed immediately by weather. Traffic reports are gathered from listeners' calls (by dialing *1130) & from the News1130 airborne, from which live reports are broadcast mornings and afternoons. News1130 also gives listeners Traffic Alerts. If a problem happens outside the regular traffic reports, a quick alert can be used @ anytime during the news wheel to inform the listener about a major problem. News1130 is the only Vancouver station with a full-time meteorologist, Russ Lacate, who broadcasts weather reports with traffic every 10 minutes. News1130 is also the only Vancouver radio station with a $1,000 Weather Guarantee. News team * News: Tim James, Amanda Wawryk, Jim Bennie, Amelia John, Ben Wilson, Reaon Ford, John Copsey, John Ackermann. * Sports: Adam Forsythe, Jas Kang (SN590), Rick Dhaliwal. * Weather: Russ Lacate. Format News1130 carries 30-minute news program called a "news wheel", with continuous news punctuated by the following scheduled reports & features: * :00 - Headlines * :01 - Traffic & Weather * :03 - News * :10 - Ads * :11 - Traffic & Weather * :13 - Market Minute (5:30am-6:30pm) * :14 - Commercial * :15 - Top Stories * :15:30 - Sports * :17 - Commercial * :18 - International News * :20 - Commercial * :21 - Traffic & Weather (includes the 5-day forecast) * :23 - Commercial * :24 - News * :25 - Commercial * :26 - Money News * :28 - Commercial * :29 - Traveller's Forecast/Regional Conditions/Marine Forecast/Winter Highway Report Awards *2001: Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon for Breaking News *2002: Canadian Association of Broadcasters Byron MacGregor Award for best radio newscast (large market) *2003: RTNDA Ron Laidlaw Award for Best Continuing Coverage to News1130 Crime Specialist Ron Bencze for his work on the Robert Pickton investigation *2004: RTNDA Lifetime Achievement Award to Weekend Morning Anchor Andy Walsh *2005: RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award to News1130 Crime Specialist Ron Bencze for his series on crystal-meth *2006: Big Brothers of Vancouver Murray Goldman Award for Excellence in Community Awareness *2006: RTNDA Charlie Edwards Award for spot news *2006: Jack Webster Foundation Poynter Institute Fellowship to Editor Bruce Claggett *2007: RTNDA Charlie Edwards Award for spot news External links *News1130 *CKWX Top 40 surveys - 1957-1962 *CKWX history @ Canadian Communications Foundation